


A Little Piece of Yellow

by Halfmoon95



Series: Ladra Shepard [3]
Category: Mass Effect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-21
Updated: 2014-08-21
Packaged: 2018-02-14 00:42:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2171436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Halfmoon95/pseuds/Halfmoon95
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liara is enjoying her free time at the Presidium.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Piece of Yellow

Liara sits on the edge of the barrier in the Presidium, a data pad resting in her lap. She would have preferred real paper, maybe a notebook, but those are virtually impossible to find on the Citadel. Pulling up a blank document, she types  _Subject Seventeen_ at the top and turns her attention to the line in front of the Citadel Gift Shop.

At first glance, and to those who knew her, it might look like she's working. Then again, it must be difficult for people to understand how she likes to relax. When she first started the exercise, before she figured out how to disguise it, she'd been called creepy on more than one occasion. Now she knows better.

Her target today is a human girl wearing a bright yellow dress, looking at the fish in the tank behind the counter. As Liara watches, the human tucks a piece of raven-colored hair behind her ear.

_Why yellow?_

Liara stares at the girl intently, her mind running in a hundred different directions. Finally she settles on a path, places her fingers on the keys, and begins to type.

Really, it's little more than a game, a hobby, a bit of fun in a world that is quickly turning dark. Every time  _Normandy_ docks at the Citadel, Liara returns to the same spot. Mostly she does more work, managing her contacts, collecting and filing information, reviewing anything that might be pertinent to the Crucible project and forwarding it to the appropriate people. It's a lot of busy work that gives her headaches and makes her eyes water.

But once each trip, for five short minutes, Liara allows herself this. A chance to observe the mundane, to create a story, to find some small bit of control when everything else is so impossibly far from her power to change. Some days she feels like she is standing on the edge of a chasm and everything - every bit of data, every war asset, every  _answer_ \- is on the other side.

But this. This she can control.

_Subject seventeen has always had a sort of fascination with the color yellow. It reminds her of flowers and sunlight and warmth and freedom. Such sweet freedom. And so every day when she is feeling sad, or lost, or helpless, she wears the yellow dress her mother sent her for her birthday. And the world seems much brighter for it._

"Liara. Don't you have something fun you could be doing?"

She knows the voice without looking. Shepard.

"I've told you before. I love this part of the presidium." She gazes out over the water and from this distance it almost feels like the war is nothing more than a bad dream. "It's peaceful here."

Shepard leans her forearms against the railing, eyes trained on the fountains as they shoot streams of water into the air. "Yeah, peace is pretty hard to come by, these days."

Liara glances over at her, noting the stiffness, the circles under her eyes, the hands clasped tightly together to keep from shaking. "How are you, Shepard?"

The other woman sighs, reaching up to brush a loose piece of chocolate brown hair off her forehead. "As good as I can be, all things considered." She bites her lip. "I just spoke with the asari councilor. We're going to Thessia. There might be data on the Crucible there."

 _Thessia._ A brief memory of dirt-stained hands and torn up grass comes to mind. A child digging for ruins.  _Home._  

_Home and being torn up by Reapers._

"Liara..." Shepard's hands clench and unclench. "Be honest with me. You think we can win this?"

Liara's gaze lands on a small patch of flowers, their bright yellow petals in stark contrast with the dark green of the flower bed. Gently, she reaches out and plucks one of the blossoms. "Honestly? I don't know. But if anyone can bring us through this, it's you." Taking Shepard's hand, Liara sets the blossom on her palm and folds her fingers around it. "We're going to make it, Shepard."

Shepard smiles sweetly, the expression softening the hard lines of her face and making her look a hundred years younger. "Thanks." She tucks the flower into the pocket on her uniform. "I should get back to it. I'll see you on the  _Normandy._ "

Liara watches her walk away before turning her attention back to the data pad and reading through what she'd written. 

 _"Stupid,"_ she thinks.  _"Writing stories about people I don't even know."_

But then again, in a galaxy as crazy as this one deserved to be a little bit stupid.

And everyone could use a little piece of yellow, too.

 

 


End file.
